Britain’s best bottled beer

Newcastle Brown Ale was first brewed in 1927. The following year, at the Brewers’ Exhibition, it won The Brewing Trade Review Challenge Cup for THE BEST BOTTLED BEER IN THE SHOW. Strong, rich and full-flavoured, it has maintained its proud position and remains unchallenged in its field.

We welcome parties of visitors at our Tyne Brewery in Corporation Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. Application should he made beforehand to our Head Office in the Haymarket, Telephone: Newcastle 28605.
THE NEWCASTLE BREWERIES LTD.”
Morpeth Herald - Friday 11 April 1952, page 5.

For 100% accuracy they should have said: Britain’s best bottled beer in 1927. A lot can change in 25 years, especially with a WW II inbetween. “Strong, rich and full-flavoured” ? They certainly couldn’t make that claim in advertising today. Full-flavoured would be OK, but strong definitely not.

Note that they mention brewery tours. These are nothing new. Barclay Perkins, for example, was big tourist attraction in the 19th century as one of the wonders of London, especially during the period when it was the largest brewery in the world.

You know what’s funny about that? Drybrough didn’t brew a Brown Ale. Not even a Mild, really. They only had one recipe, which they parti-gyled at different strengths to make various beers. My guess is that their Brown Ale was a coloured up version of their B 60/- (bottling 60/-) with added caramel. Lovely. No wonder it won a prize.

Here are their beers:

Drybrough beers in 1954

Beer

Style

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

lbs
hops/ qtr

hops
lb/brl

B 60/-

Pale Ale

1031.0

1011.0

2.65

64.52%

4.48

0.57

60/-

Pale Ale

1032.0

1011.0

2.78

65.63%

4.42

0.59

XXP

Pale Ale

1043.0

1011.5

4.17

73.26%

4.42

0.79

Export

Pale Ale

1045.0

1013.5

4.17

70.00%

4.48

0.83

Burns

Strong Ale

1073.0

1032.5

5.36

55.48%

4.67

1.40

Source:

Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive,
document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here are some more dodgy claims for a brewery’s Brown Ale:

“ENJOY DOUBLE MAXIM AT HOME
GRAND... to relax with Double Maxim! It’s so satisfying, this special brown ale with the very special flavour, so full of strength and goodness. How much it adds to your evening’s pleasure... and at home to the pleasure of your guests as well! For Double Maxim is the Vaux brown ale with the distinctive flavour that everyone likes. Get some today — at any Vaux house or off-licence.
It's VAUX special-flavour Brown Ale”
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette - Thursday 21 October 1954, page 15.

Claiming a beer is “full of strength and goodness” is a definite no-no today. Pretty sure the pleasure stuff might be problematic, too. What might that “distinctive flavour” be? Had it mean Watney or Drybrough, I might cynically have suggested ullage.

Let’s finish with Newcastle Brown and Double Maxim analyses:

Newcastle Brown Ale 1949 - 1959

Year

Style

Price
per pint

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1949

Brown Ale

22d

1051.6

1012.2

5.12

76.36%

1.5 + 40

1950

Brown Ale

22d

1053.2

1008.9

5.78

83.27%

40 B

1951

Brown Ale

22d

1052.5

1011.8

5.30

77.52%

40 + 1

1952

Brown Ale

26d

1052

1009.9

5.49

80.96%

1.5 + 40

1954

Brown Ale

26d

1048.9

1010

5.06

79.55%

51

1959

Brown Ale

32d

1052.2

1012.1

5.22

76.82%

50

Source:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Vaux Double Maxim 1950 - 1955

Year

Beer

Price
per pint

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Double Maxim

19d

1048.7

1011.2

4.88

77.00%

1.5 + 40

1952

Double Maxim

23d

1049

1009.8

5.10

80.00%

2 + 40

1955

Double Maxim

24d

1048.5

1012.8

4.63

73.61%

110

Source:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Both were a good bit stronger than the majority of Brown Ales, which usually had an OG of around 1030º and were around 3% ABV. Newcastle Brown was the slightly stronger of the two and this is reflected in the price. Double Maxim seems to have got darker after 1952. The earlier two colours are in the low 50’s EBC, similar to Newcastle Brown. Much lower than the 110 of the 1955 sample.